South Georgia farmers face devastating drought after quiet hurricane season: ‘Never seen it this dry’
Farmers across South Georgia who were bracing for heavy rain and winds were met with a terrible water shortage instead this spring
DECATUR COUNTY, Ga. (WCTV) - South Georgia farmer Glenn Heard is no stranger to storms. In 2018, Hurricane Michael tore through his Georgia farm.
“We had Michael come right smack over us and destroy everything. We just never seen anything like that and didn’t realize it could do as much damage as it could,” he said.
The storm ripped apart the peanut facility, destroyed their company’s pickup trucks, crops and equipment, resulting in an unimaginable burden totaling millions of dollars in product loss.
This past year has been relatively calm. A quiet hurricane season in 2025 eased some worries about dealing with new ruin from storms, but farmers across South Georgia who were bracing for heavy rain and winds were met with a terrible water shortage instead this spring.
“For every little job we do, we’re having to run irrigation. Usually, we get showers along that help us with that, and not just growing, just every pass we make to get ready to plant, we have to water it,” Heard said.
Farmers across the region are watering constantly, just to stay afloat.
“It adds another expense on that we just don’t need,” Heard said. “It’s still unusual to have a drought this early in the spring, there’s some concern on what it’s going to be like this summer.”
The financial impact has caused a severe strain for farmers, some seeing tens of thousands of dollars down the drain.
The fields feed families far beyond Decatur County, and every dry day is a cost that doesn’t stay on the farm. It’s not just Glenn feeling it; agricultural experts like Cale Cloud, UGA Agricultural and Natural Resources Agent, said this drought is historic.
“It’s bad, I talked to people that have been doing this all their life. They are in their 60s and 70s, and they’ve said they never seen it this dry before,” Cloud said. “The problem with the weather is it goes from one extreme to the other, so you don’t know what to expect.”
Farmers are desperate for rain but still anxious about past storms.
“Hurricane season, you know, that’s always on everybody’s mind. Anytime one flares up, it puts everybody on edge. Hurricane Michael, it’s still in the back of everyone’s mind, and it always will be for this generation of farmers that’s here and Helene as well.”
This spring’s D4 drought is the first in 14 years for this area. Dried ponds once fed by rain, cracked soil, and farmers scrapping by to make ends meet and continue production, leaving the main concern,
“Financial and water availability is a concern, too, and another concern is how much rainfall it’s gonna take to get out of this drought that we’re in,” Cloud said.
Heard along with many farmers, growers and ranchers across South Georgia are praying for rain to return.
“We still have to make good crops, that’s paramount. We just hope the market bears and a lot of times it does,” he said.
From Michael to Helene, to a drought no one saw coming, South Georgia farmers have learned that weather doesn’t follow a script. For Glenn Heard, the only plan is to keep farming.
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